The cop who killed Oscar Grant during the verdict. (photo by NEWS SERVICES)
After a long wait for justice by the family of Oscar Grant, who was killed by a BART police officer in 2009, finally a verdict was reached in Los Angeles on Thursday, July 8: guilty of involuntary manslaughter, which carries a lighter sentence than murder.
“Involuntary manslaughter: unacceptable! We demand justice for Oscar Grant!,” cried thousands of people around the state, while riot police attacked protesters who marched denouncing the verdict as another injustice committed by the legal system against people of color and the poor.
Violence did not wait. Commercial shops were looted and windows smashed by angry demonstrators for the result of the judgment.
According to the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLGSF), “The verdict is a painful example of what we already know, the criminal justice system treats white, police officers with deference and poor people of color with hostility, said Carlos Villarreal, the NLGSF executive director.
However, in a written statement, the Youth Speak Out Against Police Abuse, made a guilty or not verdict irrelevant.
statement, the Youth Speak Out Against Police Abuse, made a guilty or not verdict irrelevant.
